The Adventures of Gerard - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - ebook - Standard iOS and Android reader apps work, too! 0.279 MB File Brigadier Gerard is the hero of a series of comic short stories by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and - by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view - English manners and attitudes.

Author: Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan Publisher: The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Free at Loyal Books This book is published by arrangement with the Estate of the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1896 BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes His Last Bow The Hound of the Baskervilles The Sign of Four The Valley of Fear Sir Nigel The White Company Micah Clarke The Refugees Rodney Stone Uncle Bernac Adventures of Gerard The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard The Lost World The Tragedy of the Korosko OMNIBUS VOLUMES Great Stories The Conan Doyle Stories The Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Sherlock Holmes Long Stories The Historical Romances The Complete Professor Challenger Stories The Complete Napoleonic Stories The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by John Dickson Carr 1. How the Brigadier came to the Castle of Gloom 2. How the Brigadier slew the brothers of Ajaccio Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A Biographical Introduction Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

A Biographical Introduction [ Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Authors —> Arthur Conan Doyle —> Next ] Introduction Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known all over the world as the creator of one of the most famous fictional characters in English literature, the master detective Sherlock Holmes, but he was much more than the originator of modern detective literature. He was a man of many talents and pursuits: a medical doctor, multi-talented sportsman, prolific and excellent storyteller, keen patriot and a staunch imperialist, as well as a campaigner against miscarriages of justice. He tried his hand in many genres of fiction and poetry. He wrote detective stories, historical and social romances, political essays and an innumerable number of letters to the press, public figures, acquaintances and friends, to his adored mother and other family members. Last but not least, he was a formidable public speaker and a dedicated Spiritualist, who investigated and popularised supernatural phenomena. A Victorian to the bone, he cherished the ideals of duty, chivalry, honour and respectability. The origin of the surname Doyle had an ancient Irish surname, ranking twelfth in the list of the most common surnames in Ireland.

It can be derived from the Gaelic Dub-Ghaill ('dark foreigner'), the name which the Celts gave to the Vikings, who began settling in Ireland more than 1,000 years ago, or from the Anglo-Norman surname of d'Oillys, who arrived in England with William the Conqueror and then settled in Ireland. There is a controversy about the full name of the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He always signed himself: A. Conan Doyle. Whether Conan is a middle name or the first part of the compound surname is a matter of dispute among Doylists. The entry in the register of baptisms of St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian names, and 'Doyle' as his surname. Ancestors The Doyle family originated in Ireland and were dedicated Roman Catholics. Arthur Conan Doyle's grandfather, John Doyle (c. 1797-1868), a tailor, was born in Dublin into a devoutly Catholic family. All John's siblings entered Catholic religious orders, but John, who exhibited artistic talents, decided to become a painter.

In 1820, he married Marianne Conan, a daughter of a Dublin's tailor. In c. 1822, John and Mary Doyle moved to London with their baby daughter and rented a house in Soho, which was inhabited by artists and writers. John wanted to become a portrait painter, but soon he gained fame as a political cartoonist under the pseudonym of HB. In 1833, he moved with his wife and children to a large house near Hyde Park at 17 Cambridge Terrace, where he subsequently entertained notable people including Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, William Makepeace Thackeray, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, and Edwin Lanseer. In 1832, Charles Altamont Doyle, Sir Arthur's father, was born. He grew up with one sister and three brothers. All his brothers made splendid careers: James William Edmund (1822-1892) was a historian and history illustrator; Richard (1824-1883) became a Punch cartoonist like his father; and Henry Edmund (1827-1892) became an art critic and a painter.

In 1869, he was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. Charles (1832-1893), Arthur's father, was not as successful as his elder brothers. Although he exhibited an original artistic talent, he was not able to earn a living from his paintings. At the age of 17, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and got the job of a clerk in the Office of Works as an architectural draftsman. He rented lodgings in the New Town, a central area of Edinburgh, in a house owned by a Roman Catholic widow Catherine Foley. In 1855, he married his landlady's daughter, Mary Josephine (1837-1921), aged seventeen, with whom he had nine children, seven of whom survived infancy. Childhood Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. He was baptised two days later in nearby St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. Arthur was raised in a dysfunctional family because his father, an impecunious artist, was neurotic and could hardly support the family with a clerk's meagre salary.

He developed a serious drinking problem, which eventually brought him to a mental asylum in 1881. Arthur's mother was a strong-minded Irishwoman, who traced her ancestry to the Plantagenets. She held the family together and carried the burden of running the household and raising the children. In his Memories and Adventures Conan Doyle writes that his boyhood in Edinburgh was Spartan at home and more Spartan at the Edinburgh school where a tawse-brandishing schoolmaster of the old type made our young living miserable. From the age of seven to nine I suffered under this pock-marked one-eyed rascal who might have stepped from the pages of Dickens. [11] Arthur's mother, who knew well contemporary English and French authors, was a masterful storyteller, and she inspired her son to take interest in history and literature. She exerted a strong influence on his future career. She told him stories of their family ancient aristocratic roots. At the age of about five Arthur wrote his first story, which had only thirty-six words. It was about a Bengal tiger and a hunter. Education At the age of seven Arthur began his education at Newington Academy in Edinburgh.

Then thanks to his mother and the financial help of his uncles, particularly, Michael Conan, a Paris correspondent for the Art Journal, Arthur received good education. First, he was sent for a year to Hodder, a prep school which prepared for a prestigious Jesuit school, Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire, which Arthur started in autumn 1870. As Andrew Lykett writes: Stonyurst was conservative and ultra-montane. This meant that its Rector or Head, Father Edward Ignatius Purbrick, followed a firm papal line in seeking to stem the tide of materialism in post- Darwinian Britain. [Lycett 32] Arthur did not like the strict discipline and excessive religious instruction which the Jesuits had imposed on pupils. He was soon disillusioned with the Christian faith and when he was leaving the school he became almost an agnostic. While at Stonyhurst College, Arthur edited a school paper called Wasp and next the Stonyhurst Figaro, in which he revealed his talent as a future story writer. He also became a keen sportsman. In his later life he played cricket, rugby, football and golf, and was a cross-country skier.

After passing the London Matriculation Examination at Stonyhurst, Arthur spent a year in a Jesuit grammar school, Stella Matutina, in Feldkirch, Austria, where he was to learn German. He did not speak much German because he was surrounded by other English boys, but he discovered the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, such as “The Gold Bug” and “The Murder in the Rue Morgue,” which later exerted a great influence on his detective fiction. At Feldkirch he also edited a student paper, the Feldkirch Gazette, which carried the motto “Fear not, and put it in print.” However, when he wrote an editorial criticising the Jesuit teachers' custom of censoring the boys' letters, the paper was shut down. Arthur's uncle, Michael Conan, a famous journalist, encouraged him to write, but he did not take this idea seriously at that time. (Pascal 18) As a young boy Arthur was an avid reader, and one of his most favourite books was Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. His other early readings included the novels of Robert Michael Ballantyne, Mayne Reid, James Fenimore Cooper, and Jules Verne.

He spent much of his spare time reading, and once he borrowed so many books from the local library that, as he recalls in Memories and Adventures, a special meeting of a library committee was held in his honour, at which a bye-law was passed that no subscriber should be permitted to change his book more than three times a day. (Pascal 13) In 1876, Arthur Conan Doyle began to study medicine at his mother's suggestion at the University of Edinburgh, which had been one of the best medical schools at that time. He met Dr. Joseph Bell (1837-1911), the famous lecturer and an expert in the use of deductive reasoning, who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes, and the physiologist, Professor William Rutherford (1839-1899), a model for Professor Challenger. He also studied under Sir Robert Christison (1797-1882), one of the founding fathers of modern toxicology. (Harris 449) During his medical studies, Arthur desperately tried to earn money for his living and to support his family.

1879, he worked as a medical assistant to Doctor Hoare in the town of Aston (now a district of Birmingham); next he worked in Sheffield and in Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire. As a student he began writing short stories to earn some extra money. His earliest fiction, “The Haunted Grange of Goresthorphe,” was rejected by Blackwood's Magazine, but The “Mystery of the Sasassa Valley” was accepted for publication by Chambers Journal. He also published a scientific article, “Gelseminum as a Poison” in the British Medical Journal. In 1880, Conan Doyle took a break from his studies and went on a daring six-month sea voyage to the Arctic on the whaling ship Hope. All British whale ships had to carry a surgeon, even if he was a 20 year-old medical student. During the voyage Doyle wrote a fascinating diary which was published recently. This voyage inspired him to write the story, “The Captain of the Pole Star.” Medical profession and part-time authorship Finally, in 1881, Conan Doyle passed qualifying examinations and settled in the Portsmouth suburb of Southsea in the next year to begin his own medical practice.

As a keen sportsman, he joined the Southsea Bowling Club and the North End Cricket Club, and started playing rugby. He also joined the Literary and Scientific Society. Soon he found out that he was not satisfied with his medical career and decided to try his hand in writing fiction. From a young age he found pleasure in writing letters and articles and, finally, composing short stories. In Southsea, Doyle, aged 23, wrote articles and short stories for London Society, All the Year Round, Temple Bar, Lancet, and The British Journal of Photography. He also wrote his first novel, The Narrative of John Smith. Its manuscript was lost in the mail on its way to the publisher. Although not good fiction, the novel provides a fascinating insight into the young writer's mind. It was published in 2011. This early novel is about a middle-aged man who is stricken with gout and confined to his bed for a week. He attempts to write a book, and expounds his views on topics such as medicine, religion, literature and interior design. Many of the opinions reflect the author's outlook, e.g. his belief in the importance of science and medicine, and his scepticism about religious dogma.

In the 1880s Conan Doyle continued his private medical practice at Southsea, which turned out to be far from prosperous, and published fiction in various magazines. In 1886, he wrote a novella, A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the character of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Because of its brevity it was not published as a separate book, but was included in Beeton's Christmas Annual in the following year. The Annual was not very popular and Doyle decided to write historical romances instead of detective fiction. Conan Doyle often wrote to his mother about his longing to have a wife. Eventually, in 1885, he married Louise 'Toulie' Hawkins, whom he had met while treating her terminally ill brother Jack. Surprisingly, instead of going on a honeymoon with his young wife, he went on a tour of Ireland with the Stonyhurst Wanderers, the school's old boys cricket team. Four years later Arthur and Louise had their first child, Mary, and in 1892 their second child, Arthur, known as Kingsley. In 1890, Conan Doyle studied briefly ophthalmology in Vienna.

He then visited the Hygiene Institute in Berlin, where Robert Koch's cure for tuberculosis was being tested, and reported on the cure, first in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, and next in an article “Dr Koch and his Cure,” published in the Review of the Reviews. Although he had some doubts about the curative properties of the new procedure, he was impressed by Koch himself as “a model of scientist as hero.” (Kerr 84) After return to England, Conan Doyle moved to London with his wife and daughter to start practice as an eye specialist at 2 Upper Wimpole Street. However, as he wrote in his Memories and Adventures, “not one single patient had entered the threshold of my room.” (96) Having no patients he had plenty of time to reconsider his career, and eventually, he decided to undergo a significant metamorphosis from doctor to writer (Kerr 91). In August, Doyle decided to give up medicine and make his living as a full-time professional writer. He next moved with his family to Tennison Road in South Norwood to concentrate only on writing.

He published the first six “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” in the Strand Magazine, and in 1890, the second Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. When the stories were published in book form as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), “the Baker Street mania finally swept the public. By then Conan Doyle had launched himself as a full-time professional writer.” (Dirda 12) Life at Undershaw and Windlesham In 1893, Louise was diagnosed with tuberculosis. During the first years of the illness, the Doyles spent much time in Switzerland, hoping that local climate would help her. While in Switzerland Conan Doyle practised winter sports and became the first British to cross the Alpine pass in snow shoes. After return from Switzerland to London, Conan Doyle met the novelist Grant Allen at luncheon, who told him that he had also suffered from consumption and that he had found the climate of Surrey beneficial for his health. Doyle rushed to Hindhead, the highest village in Surrey, with buildings at between 185 and 246 metres above sea level.

He immediately bought a plot of ground, and commissioned a house to be built before leaving with his wife for Egypt in the autumn of 1895. The house, called Undershaw, which was designed for rest and recuperation of his wife, was ready in 1897. During the years at Undershaw Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Great Boer War, Sir Nigel, and many other short stories and nonfiction writings. Louise died in 1906 at the age of 49. Shortly after the death of his wife, Conan Doyle married Jean Leckie (1872-1940), a beautiful daughter of a wealthy Scottish family, who rode horses, hunted, and had trained as a singer. (Pascal 94) She turned out to be the greatest love of his life. He had met her at a party in 1896, while Louise was still alive and fell in love at first sight. It appears that the relationship with Jean was platonic until Louise died. They were married a year later and he bought the house Windlesham, near Jean’s parents in Crowborough, Sussex.

Conan Doyle had two children with his first wife: Mary Louise (1889-1976) and Kingsley (1892-1918), and three children with his second wife: Denis Percy Stewart (1909-1955), Adrian Malcolm (1910-1970) and Jean Lena Annette (1912-1997). Literary career Conan Doyle’s literary output is prodigious. During his writing career Sir Arthur wrote twenty-one novels and over 150 short stories. He also published nonfiction, essays, articles, memoirs and three volumes of poetry. He left thousands of letters to the press, his mother (about 1500 letters), family, friends and acquaintances, including Winston Churchill, P. G. Wodehouse, Theodore Roosevelt, and Oscar Wilde. Jeffrey and Valerie Meyers, editors of The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader: From Sherlock Holmes to Spiritualism (2002) write: He shared Dickens's sense of justice and social responsibility, his warm humanity and delight in the lively individuality of the characters he created.

Like Dickens, he published his stories and novels, often in serial form, in the weekly magazines that were the staple of popular entertainment in the late nineteenth century. Like his younger contemporary and friend, H. G. Wells, he used his scientific education and medical training in his fiction and challenged the prevailing belief in the idea of progress. Like Wells, he also became an important public figure whose opinion was sought on the crucial issues of the day, an influential speaker at a time when the lecture was a popular event. [x] The Sherlock Holmes stories Between 1887 and 1927, Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six stories with Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant London-based “consulting detective” famous for his astute observation, deductive reasoning and forensic skills to solve difficult cases. Holmes's fictional forefather was Edgar Allan Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin, but it was Conan Doyle who first introduced to literature the character of the scientific detective. Holmes, one of the best known and most popular characters in English literature, is not only a successful master detective, but he is the epitome of the Victorian and imperial values. Sherlock Holmes embodies the system that he comes to protect.

He is the man of reason, of science, of technology; he is from the upper class and was educated at Oxford; he eventually becomes rich; and he frequents best city clubs and other haunts of the gentleman. [Lehan 84] The first novel that introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson of 221B Baker Street, London, A Study in Scarlet, a tale of murder and revenge, appeared in Beaton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, and the second, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. After publishing the first set of Sherlock Holmes stories in the Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1893, Doyle was not particularly proud of his detective fiction. He planned to write an opera, a book of medical short stories and a Napoleonic saga. He believed that historical romances, and not his detective stories, were his most important work.

(Wilson 22) In 1893, he tried to kill off Holmes at the height of his popularity by plunging him over the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty, Holmes's greatest enemy, but in 1902 Holmes appeared in The Hound of the Baskervilles because the reading public demanded further adventures of the great detective. As a matter of fact, Doyle did not bring Holmes back to life, but told a story that had taken place before his disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls. (Redmond 24) However, there was such a great public outcry that he eventually resurrected the master detective in “The Adventure of the Empty House” in the 1903 October issue of the Strand Magazine. Doyle created the first truly great detective in fiction and gave a great impetus to detective story as a fictional form. The tremendous popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods can be explained by the fact that he not only embodied the late Victorian faith in the power of logic and rationality, but above all restored confidence that the British were capable to maintain law and order not only in Britain but also in the Empire at large.

The Professor Challenger stories Although the Sherlock Holmes stories are his best fiction, Conan Doyle wrote novels and short stories in many genres. These include historical fiction, horror and suspense, psychological thriller, science fiction, poetry, and plays for the stage. In addition, Sir Arthur wrote nonfiction works on a variety of subjects: essays on literature, accounts of England’s involvement in the South African War and World War I, memoirs and diaries, writings about photography, works on the paranormal, occult and Spiritualism . Arthur Conan Doyle is also the author of fantasy and science fiction, which includes three novels and two short stories: The Lost World (1912), The Poison Belt (1913), The Land of Mist (1926), “The Disintegration Machine” (1928), and “When the World Screamed” (1929). The Lost World introduced his second most famous character, Professor George Edward Challenger, who guides an expedition deep into an isolated plateau in the South American jungle where some prehistoric animals (dinosaurs) and indigenous race of ape-like people still live. Challenger, a scientist of enormous intellect and adventurer, was designed to be a character to rival Holmes.

The Poison Belt is an apocalyptic novel that features the same characters who appear in The Lost World. Astronomers discover that the Earth is about to be engulfed in a belt of poisonous gas “ether” from outer space. Prior to (apparently) extinguishing all life on the planet, the belt causes a mysterious outbreak of illness whose symptoms are irritability, loss of inhibition, coma, and (pseudo) death. (Harris 453) In The Land of Mist (1926) Professor Challenger is converted to Spiritualism. The Challenger stories, which recall Jules Verne’s science fiction, are less popular of Doyle's fictions than the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, they contain interesting narrative structure and their themes concern imperialism, positivist science, the male role, evolution, degeneration theory and atavism. (Christensen 121) Historical romances Arthur Conan Doyle wrote several popular works of historical fiction. The first was Micah Clarke (1889), which is set in the seventeenth century during the Monmouth Rebellion.

The White Company (1891) recounts the history of a company of medieval English archers during the Hundred Years' War, in the years 1366 and 1367. In 1906, Doyle published its prequel, Sir Nigel, which is set in the early phase of the Hundred Years' War. Doyle also wrote a series of short stories about a Napoleonic hussar named Etienne Gerard, which were first published in magazines and eventually in book form: The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896) and Adventures of Gerard (1903). They are “brilliant evocations of the Napoleonic ethos.” (Dirda 73) Earlier in 1892, he published The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales. It should be noted that Conan Doyle was often disappointed at being famous chiefly for the creation of the Sherlock Holmes character. He had a much higher esteem of his historical novels than the Sherlock Holmes stories. Nonfiction Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote nonfiction. In 1907, he published Through the Magic Door, a long essay about the charisma and charm of books.

He also wrote several books dealing with public topics, such as The Crime of the Congo (1910). He also published A History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders ( 6 vols., 1916-1920), and A Visit to Three Fronts (1916). In 1914, Doyle wrote several pamphlets about the war. In 1924, Doyle published his excellent autobiography, Mysteries and Adventures, which recounts his life from early childhood, education, voyages as a ship's doctor, medical practice in Southsea, his literary endeavours, experiences from the Boer war, legal and political campaigns, interests in sports, and commitment to spiritualism. Knighthood In 1900, Doyle served in the Boer War as a volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June. After return home he wrote a lengthy book, The Great Boer War, which sought to justify the British cause and to emphasise the great need for army reform and modernisation. The book was hailed in the press for its accuracy and fairness.

(Pascal 99) In 1902, Doyle received his knighthood from the British Crown for a pamphlet, The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct, in which he defended England's position in the Boer War in South Africa and for his service to the nation. He was reluctant to accept the title, but his mother talked him into it. (Pascal 103) There is also a theory that king Edward VII, who was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories, knighted him to encourage him to write more stories about the 'master' detective'. Interest in spiritualism Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in the paranormal in the late 1880s and studied it for the rest of his life. In the last quarter of his life, he abandoned literary career and devoted himself to spreading the spiritualist message throughout the world. He lectured on spiritualism in Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa, and the United States, during which he covered 55,000 miles and addressed a quarter of a million people. In 1926, he published The History of Spiritualism in two volumes at his own expense.

Other accomplishments Sir Arthur was a large, vigorous, active man, with all of the Englishman's traditional fondness for sports. Throughout all his adult life he wore the “walrus” moustache of the late Victorian era. He was an outstanding sportsman; he played football, and billiards. While living in Southsea he was a goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club. He was also a keen cricketeer. “For many years Conan Doyle even belonged to a rather literary cricket team called the Allahakbarries, its name punningly combining the Arabic formula praising God with a nod to the team’s captain J. M. Barrie (creator of Peter Pan).” (Dirda 13) Between 1899 and 1907, he played 10 first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club. He also practised boxing and was a pioneer motorist and a rally-driver. In the 1890s, he started ski-touring to Switzerland. He was an occasional bowler and keen golfer. In 1910, he was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, East Sussex. Conan Doyle was always a partisan of the underdog.

He campaigned successfully against miscarriages of justice. He conducted a long campaign to defend the half-British and half-Indian solicitor George Edaljii, who had been accused of mutilating animals. Julian Barnes' novel, Arthur and George (2005) recounts this episode in his life. Conan Doyle also campaigned for the release of Oscar Slater, a German Jew born in Upper Silesia, who was accused of murdering an old woman in Glasgow. Doyle exposed inconsistencies in the police investigation and Slater was finally freed. Conan Doyle was also an early champion of building the Channel Tunnel, which, he believed, was necessary, “for the deployment of troops and armaments in France in an anticipation a German war.” (Wynne 21) For his various accomplishments he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Edinburgh in 1905, and was a knight of grace of the order of St. John of Jerusalem. Death and legacy Towards the end of his life Sir Arthur suffered angina which he contracted during his exhausting world tours.

He died of heart failure on July 7, 1930, in Crowborough, East Sussex, leaving his widow Jean, their three children, Dennis, Adrian and Jean, and his daughter Mary, by his first wife. His eldest son, Kingsley, who served in World War One, was seriously wounded at the 1916 Battle of the Somme; later he developed pneumonia which he contracted during his convalescence and died in 1918 aged 25. The last words of Conan Doyle were addressed to his wife. He whispered smiling to her: “You are wonderful.” (Davis xvi) He was 71 years old. Sir Arthur and his second wife are buried at the New Forest Church of All Saints, Minstead. Legend has it that as a devoted spiritualist, he was first buried in an upright position in the garden of his home at Crowborough. The house in Crowborough was sold, but the graves remained until 1955, when the Doyle family decided to fulfil Lady Jean's original wish that they be buried together at All Saints. The remains of Sir Arthur and Lady Jean were exhumed from the garden and reinterred in the churchyard.

After a short private ceremony the couple were laid horizontally to rest. The epitaph on the gravestone in the churchyard at Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire, reads: “Steel True, Blade Straight, Arthur Conan Doyle, Knight, Patriot, Physician & Man of Letters.” Conclusion Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a versatile and complex personality; he was physician by education, keen sportsman, war correspondent, campaigner for social justice, creator of the world's most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, author of historical and social novels, and active Spiritualist. As Douglas Kerr has written in his recent book: “Arthur Conan Doyle was, arguably, Britain's last national writer.” (13) An Irish by ancestry, Scottish by birth and upbringing, and British by choice, devoted to Crown and Empire, he still remains one of the most popular British authors and a national icon. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Biography - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Biography Young Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 may 1859, at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother, Mary Foley, was Irish and descendant of the famous Percy family of Northumberland, in the line of Plantagenet.

His father, Charles Altamont Doyle , was a not very ambitious officer with some artistic talent [1] . When he lost his job, he sank into alcoholism and was interned after severe seizures before dying in 1893. The three brothers of his father distinguished themselves in England: James wrote The Chronicles of England, Henry was director of the National Gallery in Dublin and Richard was one of the most famous illustrators of Punch . Arthur is the second of seven children (Annette Constance, Caroline, Innes, Ida and Julia). His education begins at home and in a small Edinburgh school. At nine, he entered the Jesuit college Hodder in Lancashire to prepare his admission to the Stonyhurst College. He succeeded two years later and already starting to get excited about literature : Walter Scott, Jules Verne or Macaulay. He even founded a little magazine : The Stonyhurst Figaro . However, Jesuit education hardly suited him and when he left school in 1875, he completely rejected Christianity, preferring to be agnostic. Nevertheless, he spent an additional year at a Jesuit college in Feldkirch, Austria, to improve his German.

In 1876, he began his medical studies at the Faculty of Edinburgh. Dr. Joseph Bell There he met two men who influence the choice of his future novel hero: Professor Rutherford, whose Assyrian beard, booming voice and broad chest, inspire him Professor George Edward Challenger [2] and Dr. Joseph Bell , Professor of Surgery, whose amazing deductions on his patients and their diseases did germinate the idea of a detective using the same methods. Alongside his studies, Arthur tries to win some money to help her family. He worked as medical assistant in Sheffield, Birmingham and Shropshire and doctor aboard a whaling in Greenland. In 1879, two of his short stories are published anonymously ( The Mystery of Sasassa Valley and The American's Tale ). 22 october 1881, he graduated and enlisted as a doctor aboard a steamer to Western Africa. The voyage which proves unpleasant because of a storm and a fire on board, Conan Doyle became seriously ill (probably malaria) in Lagos. He decides to exercise his talents more peacefully. After a brief partnership in 1882, with a crooked colleague, he opened a practice of ophthalmology in Southsea, near Portsmouth.

His clientele leaves him plenty of time to read, write and try to publish other short stories but without success. Louisa Hawkins In august 1885, he married Louisa Hawkins ("Touie"), the sister of one of his rare patients. She gave him two children ( Mary Louise and Kingsley ) and strongly encouraged him to persevere in literature. He followed his advice because in 1886 he finished his first novel The Firm of Girdlestone , but failed to find a publisher (it will be serialized in 1889-1890 in People magazine). Beeton's Christmas Annual (1887) In 1887, he wrote his first Sherlock Holmes adventure, A Study in Scarlet . The manuscript was rejected by several publishers before Ward, Lock & Co. bought it for the paltry sum of £25. They published it in their Beeton's Christmas Annual in november 1887 and was completely unnoticed. But the young author, disciple of Walter Scott, is already working on historical novels (the kind he considered the only worthy of his vocation) like Micah Clarke (published in 1889).

Having some success, he devours the chroniclers of the Middle Ages as Froissart and Philippe Commynes. As a result, he wrote The White Company (published in 1891). With this latest novel, which is a somewhat idealized description of English chivalry, Conan Doyle was proud to give England a second Ivanhoe. Lippincott's Magazine (1890) In august 1889, during a dinner hosted by J. M. Stoddart, an American agent of the Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde are hired to write two stories. Published in 1890, Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and Conan Doyle The Sign of Four, the second adventure of the detective. The same year, the Conan Doyles stayed a few months in Vienna for Arthur to improve his medical knowledge. Back in England, they moved to London on Montague Place and the young doctor's office opens at 2 Devonshire Place. Patients are still scarce, Conan Doyle took up the pen again.

The Strand Magazine In january 1891, discovering the first issue of The Strand Magazine , he decided to write and propose new adventures of the detective, including A Scandal in Bohemia and The Red-Headed League . He then provided five other short stories and renewed his contract for six additional stories at the rate of one per month [3] . The success was stunning. He abandoned medicine and devoted himself entirely to writing. Nevertheless, he wanted his name remain associated with more literary works and in november 1891 he wrote to his mother : "I plan to kill Holmes in the sixth aventure. He prevents me from thinking to better things." Mrs Doyle then starts effort to find him plots [4] and thanks to his supplications, Sherlock Holmes got a reprieve. Doyle moved in december 1892 in Davos, Switzerland, where the air is healthier for his wife suffering from tuberculosis. Not far away are the Reichenbach Falls, gorgeous, magnificent and terrifying framework conducive to a dramatic end. After a series of twelve new adventures [5] , Holmes died there, resulted in a fall into the abyss by Professor Moriarty ( The Adventure of the Final Problem ).

Despite fierce public outcry, and his mother, Conan Doyle refused to resurrect his detective. A new life begins. In 1894, he gave a series of lectures in the United States and is received by Rudyard Kipling in Vermont. He also corresponds with Robert Louis Stevenson which told him he was telling the Sherlock Holmes stories to the Samoan natives. The same year, his play A Story of Waterloo is performed in London with Henry Irving at the Lyceum. In Davos, he gives a demonstration of ski which he has discovered in Norway during a previous trip [6] . This is the first time that such "snow shoes" are introduced in the Alps. There, he also wrote The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (first novel in the saga of the soldier of the First Empire) and Rodney Stone (a novel about boxing). During the fall of 1895, in order to improve the health of his wife, Conan Doyle stayed in Cairo for several months. When the conflict between the British and the dervishes was growing seriously, he became a war correspondent for the Westminster Gazette . These events inspired the novel The Tragedy of the Korosko .

In october 1899, war broke out between England and African Orange and Transvaal Republics in South Africa. Conan Doyle engaged in december. Unfortunately, the Middlesex Yeomanry Regiment put him on a waiting list. Meanwhile, a friend, John Langman, who wishes to raise a fifty hospital beds in South Africa, offers him to supervise the operation. From march 1900, he led the hospital in Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange state, until august 1901. In october 1900, he ran for election in Edinburgh for MP, in favor of retaining Ireland within the United Kingdom. But was defeated. On his return to England, he wrote two books: The Great Boer War (1901) and The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct (1902). The latter was virulent against those who accused the English of abusing the Boers (rapes, use of dum-dum bullets...). This position, rather than his participation in the conflict earned him the title of Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. He was from then: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes then makes his return.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is serialized between august 1901 and may 1902 in The Strand Magazine . But it is an adventure which takes place shortly before the death of the detective. It was only in 1903 that an American publisher convinced Conan Doyle to resurrect the detective, by offering him a large sum of money. Then, thirty-three new stories will be published between september 1903 ( The Adventure of the Empty House ) and march 1927 ( The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place ) [7] . In january 1906, Sir Arthur ran for elections (always Unionist so conservative) and suffered another defeat. The health of his wife Louisa suddenly worsen. Tumor occured and caused partial paralysis. She gradually weakened and died on 4 july 1906. This drama plunged him into a state of prostration near depression. George Edalji (1906) He then launched headlong into the George Edalji case, ayoung notary Indian origin, sentenced to seven years of prison for sending anonymous letters and mutilating cattle.

In the manner of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle lead his own investigation and proved his innocence. Jean Leckie In september 1907, Conan Doyle married Jean Elizabeth Leckie with whom he was in love since 1897 but always maintained a friendly relationship of respect for his wife. He moved to Crowborough in Sussex, where Jean gave him three children ( Denis , Adrian and Jean ). Two years later, the public discovers the crimes committed in Congo by the Belgian administration. Conan Doyle decided to take action at the international level by publishing: The Crime of the Congo and sending several articles in newspapers and correspondence with the President of the United States and the Emperor of Germany. All means were good to stop these crimes, which in twenty years, did more than a century of slavery victims across Africa. Oscar Slater (1910) Conan Doyle intervened in 1910 to restore the truth in the Oscar Slater case, a German Jew accused of murder and sentenced to death. He noted serious irregularities in the police investigation. Convinced of the innocence of the man, he sought to prove it. he didn't succeed completely but managed to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment [8] .

Professor Challenger (illustration by Conan Doyle himself) In 1912, Conan Doyle created a new character that will mark the literary world: the Professor Challenger in the novel: The Lost World . When World War I broke out in 1914, Conan Doyle formed a local volunteer unit that would later become officially The Crowborough Company of the 6th Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment, where he served as second class. But when he wanted to go to the front, this "privilege" was refused due to his advanced age (55 years-old). So he put his pen to the service of his country and publishes a pamphlet entitled To Arms! . Throughout the war, he wrote carefully the history of the Great War day by day [9] . For this, he was directly communicating with generals on the battlefield. In 1916, he visited the English, Italian and French fronts and even met Clemenceau. The same year, his eldest son, Kingsley, was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme. He died of pneumonia in october 1918. The following february, his brother, Innes (Brigadier General) died the same way.

Sir Roger Casement Also in 1916, Conan Doyle intervened to obtain the grace of Sir Roger Casement, a leader of the Irish insurgents who joined the germans. Despite all his efforts the writer can not save him. Accused of treason, Sir Roger Casement is executed. In october 1916, Conan Doyle announced in the journal Light his conversion to spiritualism. During the last years of his life, he became the "crusader" of this movement that preaches salvation of humanity through science. Thus, from 1920 to 1923, he gave a series of lectures about spiritualism in Australia, in USA and in Canada. He published his autobiography, Memories and Adventures in 1924 and opened a spiritualism bookstore, The Psychic Bookshop in London, where he handled the editing of his own works. In particular he published The History of Spiritualism in two volumes and The Land of Mist , the latest adventure of Professor Challenger on a spiritualism theme.

He spends more time on conferences: in Paris, the International Spiritualist Congress in 1925, in London, the Congress he chaired in 1928, and then in South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries. After these trips, in 1929, exhausted, he suffered a heart attack. Nevertheless, against the advice of his doctors, he insisted on speaking at a ceremony commemorating the Armistice, then spent weeks in bed. He is recovering slowly but on 7 july 1930 at dawn, he died from a final heart attack. Published Biographies Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | All You Can Books | AllYouCanBooks.com Get ALL YOU CAN for FREE for 30 days! Over 30,000 books & works on all major devices Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is set in 1887. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among...

Tales of Terror and Mystery Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his detective stories, he also wrote other short stories which are masterpieces of mystery and suspense. In some of the stories in “Tales of Terror and Mystery”, a suppressed uneasiness gradually builds up and evolves into sheer terror. In others,... The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, accomplished horseman and gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong... The Tragedy of the Korosko The Tragedy of the Korosko surrounds a group of European and American tourists who are enjoying their trip in Egypt in the year 1895. They are sailing up the River Nile in a “a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler”, the Korosko. They intend to travel to Abousir at the southern frontier of... The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective. Dr.

Watson chronicles here some of the more interesting detective cases that he and his good friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, have encountered during their association.... Having left Sherlock Holmes apparently deceased at the conclusion of The Final Problem (in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes), we now find that he is alive after all! In this collection, the great detective causes Watson to faint (The Empty House), demonstrates that cryptography is... The Doings of Raffles Haw The people of the small town of Tamfield are not used to exciting things happening. When millionaire Raffles Haw moves to town, rumors spread like wildfire about him. The advent of Mr. Haw, however, changes the town, and particularly the lives of the McIntyre family, in ways no one could ever... The Parasite Being a physiologist, Austin Gilroy is unconvinced that the occult is real. His friend Professor Wilson, however, is not only convinced that psychical powers are real, but eagerly desires that Gilroy should be persuaded. To this end, Wilson invites Austin to his house for a demonstration. The...

THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD Classic Novels: New Illustrated eBook by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE - 1230000117607 | Kobo View all Synopsis "THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD" - Popular Classic Novels included Free AudioBook Links, NEW illustrations, Clickable Table of Contents for both the list of included books and their respective chapters.The text and chapters are perfectly set up to match the layout and feel of a physical copy, rather than being haphazardly thrown together for a quick release. Brigadier Gerard is the hero of a series of comic short stories by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity – he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often.

Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and – by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view – English manners and attitudes. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. People who read this also enjoyed The Adventures of Gerard: Amazon.es: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Libros en idiomas extranjeros Libros en idiomas extranjeros AÃ±adir a la Lista de deseos Â¿Tienes uno para vender? Volver atrÃ¡s Ir adelante Escuchar Reproduciendo...

Interrumpido EstÃ¡s escuchando una muestra de la ediciÃ³n de audio Audible. DescripciÃ³n del producto Reseña del editor Brigadier Gerard is the hero of a series of comic short stories by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity – he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and – by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view – English manners and attitudes. No es necesario ningÃºn dispositivo Kindle.

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Question: Which French Hussar is the hero of several short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
Answer: 'BRIGADIER GERARD'